'IT WAS A STRUGGLE': Blue Jays brutally downed by Astros

'IT WAS A STRUGGLE': Blue Jays brutally downed by Astros

HOUSTON – For those of you returning to baseball from other Toronto sports fan pursuits over the past two months or so, we offer the following public service announcement:

This is not going well.

The Blue Jays you may vaguely remember as being competitive are significantly less so now, falling to 20 games below .500 once again on Saturday thanks to a 7-2 bleep-kicking by the Astros here at Minute Maid Park.

And this followed an even more gruesome 15-2 drubbing the previous night.

On Saturday, there was carnage aplenty, beginning with starter Clayton Richard who wasn’t merely having difficulty locating the strike zone, he was throwing balls behind Astros batters at times. Command was a foreign concept as he lasted five innings giving up eight hits and five earned runs.

“It was a struggle the whole time,” manager Charlie Montoyo accurately and succinctly summed it up. “His command was not there.”

Making his fifth start, Richard was certainly puzzled by what unfolded but to his credit didn’t attempt to play it down with excuses.

“I struggled with command, especially the slider, and it seemed to just pop out a few times,” Richard said. “I was able to make an adjustment, unfortunately it was too late in the game to make a difference in the outcome.

“In big-league games you have to make those adjustments quick if you want to win and I was not able to do that today.”

After Richard’s departure came this beauty: The Jays debut of recently acquired Nick Klingham, a struggling pitcher who had put up a 9.87 ERA with the Pirates but somehow caught the eye of Blue Jays’ bird dogs.

His first pitch with his new team — yes, the very first — was blasted into the right-field bullpen by Astros star Alex Bregman. The fourth pitch was a double to Jack Mayfield, which was followed by a wild pitch and later in the inning, an RBI single to Myles Straw. We’ve seen better debuts — and we’re guessing Montoyo has as well.

“He wasn’t sharp but then again he hasn’t pitched in a while,” the manager offered. “We’ll see.”

In falling to 25-45, the Jays have lost seven of their past nine and 13 of 17. When the Astros opened up a 5-0 lead in the fourth, the aggregate score in the series through 13 innings was 20-2.

As poor as the Jays pitching was over the past two games, the bad at-bats continue to mount for first-year manager Montoyo. For the second consecutive contest, Toronto hitters struck out 10 times.

They’ve now been held to two or fewer runs 22 times in their past 40 contests as the frustrating continues to mount.

VLAD ON THE MEND

After bruising the bottom of his left hand where a 97 mile per hour Gerrit Cole fastball dinged him on Friday, Jays rookie Vlad Guerrero Jr. was absent from the Jays lineup on Saturday.

While the team isn’t likely to rush him back any time soon, the team was encouraged by how Guerrero felt after hitting during batting practice. Montoyo indicated that it’s possible the 20-year-old third baseman could return for the series finale tomorrow.

“I’m just going to take a couple days off, keep working hard and then come back ready,” Guerrero said through team translator Hector Lebron.

Even though X-rays came back negative, the Jays may still end up being cautious with their prized rookie, who entered this weekend series coming off back-to-back three-hit games for the first time in his career.

The bruise was bad enough that Guerrero couldn’t close his hand with a glove on it nor properly grip a bat.

“When it hit me it didn’t feel that bad,” Guerrero said. “I thought it was okay, just a bruise and that was it. But then when I went to the field, I couldn’t close my glove at all and it was then that I was worried a little bit.”

Guerrero said that once the pain becomes tolerable, he expects to return to the lineup. And that may come sooner than first anticipated.

ON THE MOVE

With Kingham about to be activated, Thomas Pannone’s return to Buffalo was likely imminent anyway. But it didn’t help matters that the lefty gave up an eighth-inning grand slam here on Friday night to hasten along the process.

Montoyo said that Kingham could be considered for a starting spot at some point “if he earns it.”

That’s a lot of earning though, considering Kingham’s ERA of 9.87 in Pittsburgh where he had four starts and 10 relief appearances followed by his first impression on Saturday.

AROUND THE BASES

A nagging hamstring kept first baseman Justin Smoak out of Saturday’s game, prompting Montoyo to start Cavan Biggio at first. With lefty Framber Valdez on the hill for the Astros, Montoyo figured it would be a good opportunity to rest Smoak.

We’re not about to predict a 3,000-hit career for Biggio just yet, but there is an interesting parallel between him and his Hall of Fame father, Craig. Prior to Saturday’s game vs. the Astros, Biggio had nine hits in his first 16 career games and four extra base hits, the exact same totals as his dad did through that many contests.

As for batting average, Cavan had the slight edge — .184 to .176.

Recovery continues to move in the right direction for left hander Ryan Borucki, who threw his first live bullpen on Saturday since being placed on the 60-day injury list in April with elbow inflammation.

Former Astro prospect Trent Thornton will get the start for the Jays on Sunday. Toronto dealt for the 25-year-old right-hander last November in the swap that sent Aledmys Diaz to Houston.

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